Splash Festival back on after two years

After two years of not being able to host the flagship Nelson Mandela Bay Splash Festival, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is ready and excited to welcome thousands of visitors for the 30th Edition of the Festival over the Easter Weekend.


The City will deliver a revitalised event with food, music and sport taking centre stage. The Splash Festival was last held in 2019 due to the COVID-19 regulations.


The four-day action packed family festival encompasses the core elements that have made Splash Festival a major event on the NMB calendar for the past 30 years, with new events and content added to the festival, to ensure that the festival stays relevant.


During the media launch at the Gqeberha City Hall on Tuesday, 12 April 2022, NMBM Executive Mayor Cllr Eugene Johnson said: “This year visitors to the Splash Festival will be thrilled by new attractions in the form of food tents and trucks and wine pairings. Regular attractions which have proven to be popular with festival goers such as watersports, beach volleyball, crafts and stalls will also be part of this year’s event. We are excited by what Splash has to offer this year. We are sure that our residents and visitors will create memorable and special moments. Stage entertainment, food stalls, crafters and watersports will be forming part of this year’s programme.”
The Mayor said music lovers can expect to be entertained by the NMB’s very own Ami Faku, Early B and Ruhan Du Toit who will be sharing the stage with over 40 local and national artists and performers.


All the events are free entry to the public however on a first-come, first serve basis and all the details are available on www.nmbsplash.co.za.
In a major change this year, the festival will be split over two sites, with King’s Beach hosting the entertainment and food attractions and the watersports and beach volleyball staying at Hobie Beach. “By moving the festival to King’s Beach, the festival organisers will be able to fence off the festival and have better control of access to the attractions. It will also mean extra parking for festival goers and will help to alleviate traffic congestion in Summerstrand. For the first time, we will be able to manage the sale of alcohol in the controlled and highly managed environments of a beer garden and wine tent,” added Mayor Johnson.


The programme and content have also been designed to appeal to a wide demographic, representative of the citizens of the greater Nelson Mandela Bay and to attract visitors from out of town to the Splash Festival and, by extension, the region. As the second largest Easter Festival in South Africa, the festival boasts over 120 stalls including: original crafts and an amazing array of food stalls for all tastes.


NMBM Acting Executive Director for Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture, Dr Kithi Ngesi said that festival goers would be spoilt for choice.

Splash Festival back on after two years
“We are excited to present the new food court in association with Gqeberha’s iconic Baakens Food Truck Funday. The food court will feature a bigger canopy over the area, with a stage and performances. We have partnered with Baakens to bring a new variety of food stalls to Splash Festival 2022 – 2024. The range will include: vegetarian, halal, kosher and vegan options. All food vendors are vetted to ensure compliance with R638 regulations. We will still make most of the slots available to the regular food vendors who have been severely impacted by the Disaster Management Act restrictions on this industry. In addition we will also be having a comedy show where Jason Goliath will be the headlining act supported by our local comedians,” she said, adding that headline Chefs Reuben Riffel, and Pete Goffe-Wood were part of this year’s programme.

Pastors Unite as One for the sake of God’s Kingdom

On Saturday morning 2 April 2022 more than 1500 church leaders and pastors from various churches, denominations, languages, and nations who have established Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Shincheonji Church of Jesus, joined together for a special global conference.

The “Conference for Pastors in Partnership with Shincheonji Church” was hosted by Shincheonji chairman, Mr. Man-Hee Lee, to share the progress of online Bible seminars that began in 2021. Pastors were updated about MOUs established thus far along with examples of cooperation and collaboration between Shincheonji and other church organisations around the world.

According to Shincheonji Church of Jesus, 2155 pastors, 22 seminary schools, 958 churches in 67 countries have established MOUs with Shincheonji. The church is providing theology material and instructors for the churches and seminary schools that have established MOUs with them, to educate people about the Bible as mutually decided upon in the agreement.

The theme of unity under God came across strongly with chairman Man-Hee Lee reminding pastors that “We are one in God,” and urging pastors to take up their role as shepherds and work together for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

The head of Shincheonji’s Ministry of International Missions stated, “Many participants from Africa in the Bible Seminar from August last year reached out to establish MOUs with us. This led to the first MOU in September 2021 with the Worship in the Presence of GodChurch in Uganda,” explaining how Shincheonji first started to establish MOUs with other churches.

Many similar examples were shared. Pastor Willifred Endohu, a pastor who has been leading his church for 11 years in Cote d’Ivoire, introduced himself stating, “I studied theology in a seminary and was trained to be a pastor through prayer meetings and began ministering to a church in a very small room. Thankfully enough, 11 years later my congregation has grown to be about 500 members. I am also a lecturer at a seminary institute as well.”

Pastor Endohu is currently learning Lesson 16 of the Introductory Level course in Shincheonji’s Zion Mission Center. He confessed that his “thoughts and knowledge of the Bible have been broken and is changing through the lessons. Jesus and the Word that has become flesh has struck a chord in my heart. I also want to preach the Revealed Word after I’m done studying. I want to share this Word to the people in my congregation that have been following me for the last 8 years,” showing his aspirations upon completing the courses.

He also added, “I want to express how thankful I am for Mr. Lee because that’s how I could receive the Revealed Word from God. Mr. Lee could not have taught such a profound Word if he had not met God and Jesus. I want to tell my fellow pastors that what I have seen and verified is that all the answers are in the Bible and Shincheonji is testifying those answers according to the Bible. Please come and check for yourselves.”

During the conference, Mr. Lee shared about how he has come to share the Word and the role of pastors today. “Revelation is about re-creation. If you look at Revelation 21, the first heaven and the first earth pass away and a new heaven and a new earth are created. It is about creating people and all creation again,” Chairman Lee stated. He continued to explain that those who are born of God’s seed are harvested and sealed to create God’s new kingdom and new people at the time of Revelation.

He also added, “Writing the word of all the chapters of Revelation in people’s hearts is harvesting, sealing, and nurturing those who have been born of God’s seed and making them into the citizens of God’s kingdom. [This is why] Jesus showed me the events of all the chapters of Revelation and commanded me to testify to all the churches,” as he explained the role of the promised pastor today.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Lee stated, “We must become freedom fighters of God’s kingdom who restore what God lost. Let’s fight and overcome the devil with the blood of Jesus and the word of testimony and create the people of God’s kingdom so that God may finally come and reign over the world after 6000 years. This is what [God] has made known to us through the Bible. I hope that everyone engraves the words of all the chapters of Revelation—which is the law of heaven—in their hearts. There is only one God, one Bible, and one hope. We, as those who believe in God, are also one. We are one!”

Shincheonji’s lectures are available online in 24 different languages on YouTube with over 1.5 million views to date. Anyone can view these lessons free of charge by visiting the church’s official YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/c/ShincheonjiChurchofJesus